2024 - Season - Remember the Titans (Ready 8/24)

[Baker]

10 days in Vegas, may as well be a death sentence.

I get bored after 36 hours there.

Troof

Yeah 10 days in Vegas is a LONG ass time...but playing in 2 pool tournaments, can't leave till its over...9 ball is over, finished 33rd out of 475 teams...play first 8ball match tonight at 11pm.

[trendon]

Dave, we never spoke about this tactic; you have this mixed up with something else. We spoke about how in Major League Baseball, the true studs are usually found at AA and skip AAA while AAA serves kinda as a AAAA or a spot for middling prospects. In OOTP, it doesn't work like that for two reasons: 1) the game engine doesn't recognize that and 2) the opponent GM's generally put their best prospects in AAA. Thus, to get "apples vs apples" in the NDLB, you cannot follow MLB's logic. That is what we talked about. We never spoke about having a player cache in your low minors. And if, by any chance we did speak about it, I must have been drunk because I would have laughed at you. That is doubtful, though, because I cannot think of any instance where I'd be drunk while you are still awake and on IM.

That said, no, I don't think - and never did - think you are doing it with malicious intent. However, after all the times you have mentioned "sim", you go and do the least simulation/realistic thing possible. Shit, almost all of the guys on your short A affiliate violate the NY-Penn (and probably other low A leagues) rule on maximum service years. And, half of them violate it solely by counting their years of service in MLB, let alone overall time as a professional.

So, let's forget anything about intent. Intent is no longer an issue.

Look, you have a short-A team where the YOUNGEST player is twenty-six with eight years as a professional and the team has fourteen guys that are at least thirty years old. Portland also has a reliever (Diaz) that my scout says is a 59, has a career NDLB ERA of 3.63 (consistent with his FIP of 3.65), a WHIP of 1.28, and minus his troubles in your farm system this year (maybe the failed drug test is weighing on him) has otherwise been a fairly useful back-of-the-pen reliever that about 22 teams could use. Yet, to get him off of you, they'd have to be traded for or acquired in the Rule 5 and hog a roster spot. Is this reserve clause baseball? You're a veritable slave owner.

I am not going to speak about other teams, but my pitchers pitch more and go deeper into pitch counts against Portland more often than they do with the rest of the league combined. Can I thank you for the injuries to my younger arms? Probably not, but the thought is still there.

Bill Sparks. I traded him in 2019 to Toronto because I liked him but I didn't have room on my AAA squad and he was too old (at least for New York), so I sent him packing. His 162-game average at AAA is 309/400/519 with 22 HR and 24 SB and is a great fielder at all positions. This guy could be useful to someone else. Nope, sits on Portland, four levels down from the top.

I'd love to keep these guys in low-A and boost morale, get my lower affiliates team more wins, more at-bats, more fresh ... but I don't. These guys should all be free agents so a team in need can grab an emergency bat/arm to stem the tide. And, if you want them, they should be somewhere appropriate.

Intentional or not, this is more egregious than anything anyone ever accused Gabe (or anyone else of).

[DRiccio21]

I don't disagree with what you're saying.

I would argue the biggest issues here are

- that we don't have a system in place to allow for middling prospects or former ML players that a team might want. if we can't load them up in AAA due to the way the game works (fwiw, i'm not interested in the other point about what other GMs are doing, even if every guy had their best prospects in AAA, i'd rather have mine in AA and did for a long time bc that's whats realistic until I realized my guys weren't progressing properly. when I realized the game wasn't structured like that and nobody cared about minors, I started using short A basically how i'd like to use my AAA).

- we have too many players. if there were this many talented players willing to play on minor league deals, every ML team would figure how to grab and stash them.

- players don't retire til they die, pretty much.


my issue was more your wording. if you want to argue that its unrealistic, i'm fine with that. i can agree with you and have already said why its unrealistic and my reasons for it being unrealistic. but in terms of taking advantage or whatever else you said earlier there shouldn't be an issue here because baseball is structured to prevent anything like this from giving an unfair advantage. all these guys were free agents or part of my system. i'm stunting guys growth by doing this at times, simply because I don't have room on my AAA team anymore so there is a negative impact for some of them. all these guys are available every rule 5 draft so they can be grabbed by anyone if they wanted them and I post these guys on my trade block. its not as if i'm circumventing rules by doing this.

as for the last part, you have said it twice now. Gabe, from my knowledge, never did anything egregious. Gabe understands the rules better than most, took advantage of draft pick trading (which takes 2 parties so its not his fault, although it shouldn't have ever been an option) and since then has been acting from a position of strength which he's done a nice job of parlaying into trades that keep him in that position of strength even if he is slowly losing talent. the beauty of baseball structuring is that it has a way of balancing itself out naturally due to rule 5 and . but Gabe has never cheated or done anything egregious other than being more organized than most of us.

I would want nothing more than for people to focus on their minor leagues and even more I would want nothing more than for players to go thru a realistic process of development.

just to let you know... and I do this on my own choosing, I'm releasing alot of my short A guys, throwing some as extras in my AAA team and i'll figure out the rest in the offseason. from now on, i'm going to go back to what I used to do and use AAA as a place for my older prospects/former ml players hanging around... like I used to regardless of the impact it has on my prospects development.

[LetsGoPeay]

I got an email from a technical support person for OOTP this morning. I'm going to send them my files this afternoon and he's going to take a look at them to try and figure out my problem. I hope this works.

[shel311]

all these guys are available every rule 5 draft so they can be grabbed by anyone

That's what I was thinking. WHen Trendon was saying it makes the rule 5 draft meaningless, I was confused as to how these guys wouldn't be rule 5 eligible every offseason.

[ajalves]

i'm going to go back to what I used to do and use AAA as a place for my older prospects/former ml players hanging around... like I used to regardless of the impact it has on my prospects development.

I guess my only question is how many "older prospects" do you really need?

I've never looked at Dave's team. Having said that, through trade negotiations, i've seen mannnnnny guys have older players 27-35 years old, scattered all over their minor league systems. Some as far down as rookie ball.

[shel311]

i'm going to go back to what I used to do and use AAA as a place for my older prospects/former ml players hanging around... like I used to regardless of the impact it has on my prospects development.

I guess my only question is how many "older prospects" do you really need?

I think the flip side of that is how many 20/20 type bums you know will never make the bigs do you really need in your organization?

Dave prefers to older type guys. The only question is them being in Short A, though I do think there are pros and cons to it, it's not all advantages in Dave's favor IMO, though that's a separate argument from what you were saying.

[DRiccio21]

I guess my only question is how many "older prospects" do you really need?

Riccio's are hoarders. you should see my mom's basement!

[ajalves]

everone has different philosophies of course. I'd rather take a chance on a 20/20 guy who meets certain criteria. Whatever it is im looking for in a guy that might eventually progress from 20/20

Now AAA, you wanna have 10 Jeff Shelton's .....thats where i'd put them in case of emergencies.

I'm not questioning at all. However, as i said, take a look, SOOOOO many teams have 'older' guys littered throughout their minor with zero intention (IMO) of ever putting them on the 40.

When a player reaches a certain age, and I am done with them, i just release them

[ReignOnU]

I hate having older players in my organization. Occasionally, I'll have a couple late 20s/early 30s guys at AAA, or sometimes as a C (if they are good D to help my young SPs develop... or just because C can be tough to fill adequately). But generally speaking, I give guys until 26/27 to get it together, or I punt them out in the off-season when I reorganize, if they have no chance of ever helping on the ML level. I'd rather have a guy that looks like a 20/20 bum, but may become at least possibly tradeable, than have an over the hill guy that would likely never contribute either. With so many reasonable replacements available in FA, I don't see a need for me to stash them, even if there is a competitive advantage to getting the best of the bums and hiding them.

Are we really having a discussion about Dave's over the hill, beer league softball team beating up on the local church coed teams?

[shel311]

take a look, SOOOOO many teams have 'older' guys littered throughout their minor with zero intention (IMO) of ever putting them on the 40

That goes back to like Dave said, these guys are around because guys simply don't retire early.

And those guys, if older, from my understanding, should be rule 5 eligible every single offseason if they're not on the 40 man, so they're available for anyone to take.

Like you said, just different philosophies. You have hopes that the 20/20, 19 year old guy will progress. Dave seems to prefer to take his chances on the 28 year old 35/35 guy progressing to a ML level and getting a couple of useful years out of him.

[ajalves]

take a look, SOOOOO many teams have 'older' guys littered throughout their minor with zero intention (IMO) of ever putting them on the 40

That goes back to like Dave said, these guys are around because guys simply don't retire early.

And those guys, if older, from my understanding, should be rule 5 eligible every single offseason if they're not on the 40 man, so they're available for anyone to take.

Like you said, just different philosophies. You have hopes that the 20/20, 19 year old guy will progress. Dave seems to prefer to take his chances on the 28 year old 35/35 guy progressing to a ML level and getting a couple of useful years out of him.

I just said I would release them. Not sure if you're thinking I want these players, but I dont.

And to be fair, I'd bet if Dave has them in Short A he doesnt think a 28 year old 35/35 guy will progress to a ML level.

To me you're bringing up an issue that isnt an issure , rule 5 eligibilty. Its not an issue even if Trendon keeps bringing it up for some reason.

The issue is if 31 year olds are stunting the growth of everyone's Short A pitchers.

[ReignOnU]

File up. Email sent. Website updated.

Next sim is tomorrow, Wed, 8/21.

Here's the News:
Titans Mason NL Hitter of the Week
AL Awards Best Batter Prize to Walker
Washington's Stuart Out 6 Weeks
League Issues 4-Game Suspensions for Brawl
Indians Dudley Out of Action
Dave Davis Out for 3 Weeks
Shockers Galló Nails Down 300-th Save
Barnes Sharp, Whitewashes Predators
Trouble in Seattle, León Suffers Setback
Hill Hot, Surf Dogs Cold
Rivera Fashions Shutout Against Cougars
Dillonvale Draws Blanks Against Ramos
Pader Hits in 20 Consecutive Games
Dayton Ninjas Personnel Leaving
Albany Shuts out Bucs, Simpson Winner
League Suspends Hernández and Ortíz for Brawl

[ReignOnU]

NL playoffs are locked up... the final AL wildcard spot could come down to as many as 4 teams.

[ReignOnU]

Cincinnati Rookie 3B Arthur "Dr. Evil" Mason turned in a remarkable week. The big numbers pushed Mason into the 30/30 club (31/39 as of right now) and over 100 RBIs.

[DRiccio21]

which is exactly the case Shel.

I typically look for guys that I think others may have given up on too soon and see if I can get something out of them. like Leon Hanson for example. he probably sucks, but I thought there was a 5% chance he could be useful. I signed him to a minor league deal and then I had an injury or 2 and he got a chance at the ML level. I also don't have more than a handful of 20/20 guys in my entire organization and never have since I've been back. just my strategy.

I agree with trendon that leaving them in short A isn't the best idea anymore... I wish there as a realistic alternative. I don't want some of my good OF prospects in AAA. i'd love to keep them in AA and let guys like Joe Parker and Jeff Shelton suck until they die in AAA. but i'm seemingly forced to call up my 'almost ready prospects' to AAA to get them the development they need before they get a big league chance which forces me (if i'm to structure my minors this way) to release a guy like Parker... who i'd rather not release, nor do I think should be released.

[RanDawg]

I can't wait to beat the shit out of your lowly squad this sim

Preciate the ass whip'n....

Houston A takes 2 out of 3 from New England.....(HA!!!!)

...however, they lose 2 out of 3 to Miami. Somehow they add to last weeks 1/2 game lead and now hold a 1 game lead for the last playoff spot. With 2 tough opponents in Sheltown and Albany. We have a chance to make the playoffs...but it will be tough.

[DRiccio21]

I can't wait to beat the shit out of your lowly squad this sim

Preciate the ass whip'n....

Houston A takes 2 out of 3 from New England.....(HA!!!!)

I saw, I saw

[ajalves]

How on earth does Haden Hogan have 22 wins?

Whoever originally drafted that greedy asshole is one smart man

[shel311]

How on earth does Haden Hogan have 22 wins?

Part awesome pitching-part I'm guessing some crazy run support with the Sheltown bats playing out of this world now going on 156 games lol.